


Stars In Their Eyes

by Milieu



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Friendship/Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2018-10-20 16:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 12,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10666419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: A collection of romantic ficlets for all the possible pairings among the bachelors and bachelorettes in Stardew Valley (and a couple platonic ones where siblings are concerned).





	1. Heartbeat - Alex/Harvey

**Author's Note:**

> Like the ficlet collections I did for Rune Factory 3 and 4, I've played Stardew Valley long enough now that I felt like doing one of these to explore the possible relationships among the eligible characters. No player character included in this one since they're just a player avatar and blank slate for the game.
> 
> Pairs are decided by RNG on a chapter to chapter basis.

Alex didn't like going to the doctor. The clinic gave him a nervous feeling the pit of his stomach; bad memories, of course, and the sight of the spotless counters and sterile white and muted green-gray walls all gave off an unnatural, inorganic vibe.

Harvey was nice enough, of course, and he generally only had to go in for routine check-ups anyway, but Alex probably wouldn't ever get over his discomfort with sitting shirtless on a table, getting poked and prodded by his neighbor. His neighbor whom he definitely wasn't crushing on in an embarrassing and confusing way. Definitely not. His warm face, sweaty palms, and accelerated heart rate were probably signs that he was allergic to latex or something.

Harvey's brows drew together with concern as he noted how fast Alex's heart was beating through the stethoscope. He had a way of chewing his lower lip when something concerned him. Not that Alex noticed because he was watching Harvey's face or anything weird like that, of course.

"Are you feeling okay lately? Any anxiety? You're sleeping well enough?"

"Y-yeah, of course."

Harvey pulled back to study Alex's face. They both deliberately avoided mentioning the blush that crept up Alex's neck to his face and ears.

"Alright," Harvey said finally, turning away to scribble something on a chart like he always did.

Alex let out a sigh of relief and hastily pulled his shirt back on, putting another layer of armor between the world and his racing heart once again.


	2. Smoke - Haley/Sebastian

"There aren't any windows in here," Haley complained, sitting on the bed with her legs tucked underneath her so as to avoid any skirt mishaps, watching Sebastian as he stood on a chair and unscrewed the smoke detector with a practiced hand.

"Wow, really? Can't believe I never noticed. I've only lived in this room my entire life."

Haley huffed and rolled her eyes, but didn't comment further. Sebastian stepped down from the chair and set the disassembled smoke detector aside before moving to the bed to root around in the box stowed underneath.

"Some things you don't want windows for, anyway." He carefully unwrapped the bong and a baggie, the things that they both knew Haley was really here for. She watched his hands as he prepared everything, reasoning that there was nothing else to look at in this dismal little room. No wonder he was depressed, she thought, but kept things to herself for once.

Sebastian took a test hit, exhaling a cloud of smoke in Haley's direction. She waved the cloud away and made a face at him, but held her hands out for the bong all the same. "All right, give it here."

"Careful," he warned, but she had already gone for the hit and come up coughing and sputtering. Sebastian quickly took the bong back from her unsteady hands and returned it to the safety of the table, not bothering to suppress a chuckle at the look on her face.

"Oh shut up," she snapped, wiping at her watering eyes. But privately, she thought that he had a nice laugh. She thought that she would like to hear it more often.


	3. Wake-Up Call - Elliott/Sam

Elliott was unceremoniously awoken by the sound of his front door flying open, suddenly alerting him to the fact that there was quite a bit of noise outside as well. He sat up quickly, groggy brain fumbling to keep up with his eyes and ears.

"Sam?"

Said man paused in the middle of trying to squeeze himself underneath Elliott's desk and flashed him a smile that was at once pleading, sheepish, and more than a little frantic. "Heeey Elliott, old buddy, old pal, don't ask questions, just hide me okay?"

Before Elliott could respond in the vein of something about how they were hardly old friends (not very courteous, true, but Sam had just barged into his home at... what time was it even?) a brisk knock sounded at the door. Sam scrunched himself further under the desk and cast pleading eyes at Elliott, who just sighed and swung himself out of bed to answer the door as Sam visibly deflated.

"Yes?"

Mayor Lewis was standing outside, looking rather displeased. Beyond him, Elliott could make out other villagers milling around among bright decorations and tables loaded with food. Elliott blinked at him sleepily for a few moments before everything fell into place. "Oh! The Luau is today, isn't it!"

"Yes," Mayor Lewis said, "and _that_ little troublemaker played another one of his pranks with the soup." He indicated Sam, who despite his best efforts was still very visible.

Caught, Sam decided to be a good sport and emerged from his would-be hiding place with an apologetic grin. "Yeah, okay, sorry. How many community service hours have I got this time?"

Elliott stepped aside to allow Sam to leave with the mayor, hopefully leaving him to get dressed in peace. He hadn't realized how late he had slept in; that would teach him to stay up until the wee hours of the morning writing.

(It wouldn't, of course, but he could indulge in a little bit of self-deprecation after such a wake-up call.)

Just before Sam stepped out the door, Elliott caught him by the shoulder. "Sam."

Sam turned back to him, smiling apologetically. "I didn't think you'd still be asleep, but..." He laughed at himself a little and shook his head. "Ah, who am I kidding? I shouldn't have come in without permission, sorry about all that."

Elliott sighed a little, but returned the smile. "Apology accepted. If you ever want to stop by at a more reasonable hour for a visit, though... well, my door is open."

Sam brightened. "Oh, sure! Yeah, I'll definitely come by sometime!"

"Sam!" Jodi's irate voice had joined the mayor's in calling for him now.

"Gotta go, bye Elliott!" He slipped out the door, leaving Elliott in relative peace once again.

Old friends? No, not by a long shot, seeing as how Elliott had only been in town for about a year.

But it was never too late to start making new friends, after all.


	4. Storytime - Elliott/Haley

Haley huffed in irritation as she threw the library's front door open and ducked inside, far too late to really spare her from the sudden downpour that had broken out. At least she wouldn't have to keep standing out in it, but the thought wasn't much comfort as she futilely tried to wring water from her hair and skirt. Her makeup was probably running too.

The library was empty save for Gunther. Wait, no, Elliott was there too, tucked away in the corner with his nose in a book. Haley weighed her options for a minute, glancing between Elliott, the bookshelves, and the sheets of rain pounding against the windows. It wasn't long before her social side won out, and she made her way over, wet shoes squeaking on the floor, to plop into the chair nearest to the oblivious man.

"Hi Elliott," she said when he didn't immediately look up.

He actually jumped a little bit, but smiled once he recognized her. "Oh, Haley! I didn't notice you there." He paused, looking her over. "My goodness, you're soaking wet."

"It's raining," she said plainly.

Elliott glanced out the window, looking mildly surprised. "So it is." Haley snorted.

"What are you reading?"

"Oh, this? It's called  _The Travels of the Pirate Blackbeard._ It's a classic adventure story, quite old." Haley leaned over to peer at the book, careful not to drip on it, though she did end up getting a bit of water on Elliott. He didn't seem to mind. The book's print was awfully small, and there didn't seem to be any pictures.

"Huh," she said, unable to think of anything else. "That's... cool." Literature had never been her forte. She glanced out the window somewhat hopefully, but the rain was still coming down as hard as before and didn't seem likely to let up any time soon.

Elliott followed her gaze, considering. "I could read aloud for a bit, if you don't mind. It really is the kind of tale that deserves a good narration."

Haley looked back at him in surprise. On one hand, part of her balked at the idea of being read to like a child. On the other, she didn't have anything better to do and Elliott was far from the worst person she could spend time with. It would keep her entertained until the rain stopped, at least.

"Okay," she said at last.

Elliott smiled and flipped back to the beginning of the chapter he had been on, and began to read in a low, steady voice. Haley interrupted from time to time to ask questions, but mostly sat rapt, listening as he spun the story to life.

By the time the rain did stop, she wasn't in as much of a hurry to go back outside.


	5. Playing Make-believe - Shane/Penny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains discussion of suicidal thoughts and alcohol abuse (it might be a good idea to assume that a lot of the chapters Shane is in will contain these things).

Shane woke up on Sunday morning like usual (though he vaguely wished he hadn't, also like usual), shuffled out to the kitchen to make his morning coffee and microwave breakfast burrito like usual, and tried to ignore the hangover like usual. The "grind" part of "daily grind" never seemed so accurate, and it was only nine or ten in the morning.

He was staring morosely at the microwave (like usual), firmly settled into the routine, when he caught on to the sound of giggling from Jas's room. That wasn't so unusual; Jas had a lot of toys and games, the best he could afford on his meager salary, and sometimes she talked to herself. It took a while to realize that there was a second familiar voice responding, and he roused himself from his morning grogginess enough to go check out exactly who was in the house at this hour.

Jas's door was slightly ajar, and Shane opted to just glance in rather than interrupting whatever game was going on by knocking. He caught sight of Penny's familiar ginger hair, twisted neatly into its usual bun as she knelt next to Jas's dollhouse. Jas was occupied with arranging some kind of scene, explaining to Penny as she did so.

"Here, Miss Penny, this one is you." She handed over a pretty fashion doll with a mass of reddish curls. Penny smiled and accepted it, running a little plastic brush through the doll's hair. Shane was struck suddenly by just how  _young_ she was; it was easy to forget that Penny was hardly more than a child herself, in the grand scheme of things.

"This one is me," Jas indicated a shorter doll whose dark hair had been tied into pigtails, "and that's Aunt Marnie," an older-looking doll, thinner than Marnie was in real life but with its hair faithfully tied into her typical braid, "and this one is Uncle Shane!" Shane thought that Jas was being rather generous with his depiction; he could recognize the Prince Charming doll he had bought for her birthday, even if the prince's crown seemed to have gone missing and he was now dressed in a Hawaiian-print shirt and jeans instead of his suit.

"And we're a family," Jas declared.

Penny set her doll self with the other three at the dinner table that Jas had arranged. "Me too?"

"Yep! You and Uncle Shane are married."

Penny giggled, and it didn't sound quite as mocking as Shane thought it probably ought to.

He was pulled from the scene by the microwave's insistent beeping to signal that his breakfast was done. Shane took one last look at Penny and Jas and the smiling doll family set around the table, and then turned away, suddenly feeling like an intruder.


	6. Spicy - Shane/Abigail

Abigail had attitude. It showed in how she walked and held herself, the curl of her lip and her loud, carrying laughter. It showed in how she hunched over the cabinet for Journey of the Prairie King in the saloon's game room, eyes intense, fingers furiously mashing at buttons.

It showed in the grin that she shot Shane just before stealing a pepper popper off of his plate as she walked by.

She did that only occasionally, but he never stopped her. Sometimes his drunken thoughts swirled around to wonder if things tasted the same to her as they did to him, the burst of hot oil and spice on her tongue. Sometimes he thought about reaching out to grab her wrist, but he could never decide if he would shove her away or pull her closer.

Sometimes he got drunk enough for Abigail to coax him up out of his seat and into a dance, or over to the arcade cabinet. Alcohol slowed Shane's reaction times, but his old high score on Journey of the Prairie King still taunted her at the top of the list as it had done for years, just out of reach.

The day that she ran by again to loudly announce that she had beaten the score, they high-fived, fingers greasy from the food, Abigail's wide grin tinged reddish with spice and sauce.

It felt pretty good, even through the haze of alcohol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a headcanon that Shane used to be a pretty hardcore gamer and was probably king of those arcade machines once upon a time.


	7. Potential - Harvey/Maru

Sometimes, when it all gets to be too much and she doesn't feel like going home for a while, Maru slips into the back room of the clinic after closing up. Harvey is usually sitting at his radio, or reading and sipping wine, or poring over tax forms or patients' information and nursing a mug of coffee. Sometimes he is just reclining in his chair and not looking at anything in particular, lost in thought.

He glances up when she walks in, and they don't have to exchange words. They just hold each other.

There is so much of the world and they are so small, and there are so many words swirling in their heads about what they could do, what they could have been, what other people think they should be. Maru curls up in Harvey's lap, rests her chin on his shoulder, and closes her eyes, and she knows that she could happily stay here forever, potential be damned. It's not wasted if this is what she wants.

Harvey holds her tighter and realizes that he no longer feels trapped. He traces the bumps of Maru's spine through the back of her shirt, and he doesn't feel lost anymore in this tiny community that he more or less stumbled into. It feels less like Plan B and more like destiny.

It's not a crime to be happy with what you have and what you've made for yourself right here.


	8. Fairy Tales - Penny/Emily

Penny had always loved to read, and as a child, what she loved to read most were fantasy stories and fairy tales. Beautiful maidens, dashing princes, daring knights, magic and mystical creatures of all sorts - they were her escape from her parents' arguments out in the main part of the trailer, the aching emptiness left by her father's departure, and her mother's downhill slide deeper and deeper into alcoholism. They were her friends.

As an adult, Penny still read often. She had real friends now too, though. Maru, Sam, and the new farmer on the edge of town, they all provided her an escape from the drudgery of daily life in their own way. Even those she wasn't as close to helped sometimes.

Penny wasn't given much to flights of fancy these days. But sometimes - sometimes, when she heard Emily singing along to some hippie song when she walked Vincent and Jas past Emily and Haley's house in the evenings, or she saw how freely Emily danced, or when she reflected on how Emily decorated herself in beautiful, bold colors and jewels just like a princess out of one of those old stories, she let herself dream up some tales of her own.

And whenever Emily took the time to stop and smile her way, warmly and sincerely, Penny couldn't help but think that magic might be real, in its own way.


	9. Fog - Elliott/Shane

Sometimes Elliott goes out for a stroll on the beach when the fog rolls in off the sea. He walks until the damp presses on his skin, hair, and clothes, and he keeps walking, and he thinks. Sometimes he thinks about his writing. Other times he thinks about his own life. Sometimes he tries very hard not to think about anything at all.

Sometimes Shane is there.

Sometimes, when Shane is there, he is sober and lucid, but most often he is not. Sometimes his eyes are red, but Elliott does him the courtesy of pretending that his face is damp from the pressing fog and not from tears.

The sea air tastes like tears even on a good day, Elliott thinks once, and he decides to save that line for one of his stories.

Once, only once as they sit staring out at the ocean without speaking, Shane puts his face in his hands and begins to sob. Elliott doesn't know what to do besides put his arm around Shane's shoulders and whisper to him. "Shh, I know. It's okay."

He holds Shane's head in the crook of his neck and almost rocks him. "I know, I know. Shh."

The world could consist of only the two of them, adrift on some lost shore in this fog, Elliott cradling Shane against himself, letting Shane fall apart and trying not to do the same when things get to be just too much.

"I know," he whispers, "I know."

He doesn't know what he knows, but Shane seems to.

At some point, they move apart. At some point, they both leave. Elliott goes home and falls into a fitful sleep, dreams full of footsteps in the sand and dark eyes and fingers entwined with his during moments that he will never put to paper.

When he wakes, the fog has dissipated, and he isn't sure if any of it really happened.


	10. Passion - Leah/Sebastian

The art show had been even more of a success than Leah could possibly have imagined. Her face was starting to hurt from how much she had been smiling all day, actually, but she kept beaming anyways, still greeting and thanking each person who came up to congratulate her or ask this or that about her sculptures and the prices.

Sebastian leaned against the side of a building with his hands in his pockets, watching her and trying not to feel like too much of a creeper. His gaze occasionally drifted over the works displayed in the town square, elegant forms rising out of wood, metal, and glass in ways he couldn't have possibly envisioned had he seen the raw materials set before them. 

If he tried, he could sort of equate it to the way that he felt when coding, dorky as that might have been. Other people couldn't understand, but the way he felt when he was creating something out of nothing, stringing lines of code together to make something functional from blank space and keystrokes... he thought that might have been what it was like to have artistic passion.

He glanced back over at Leah and started when he saw that she was already looking in his direction. He quickly looked away, feeling heat rise in his cheeks.

After a moment, he glanced back. Leah was still looking at him, smiling.

Sebastian smiled back awkwardly, not knowing what else to do.

Leah moved as though she was going to head over to him, and he felt a moment of panic, but fortunately(?) her attention was drawn by Demetrius, who indicated one of the sculptures. Sebastian had noticed him eyeing it during the exhibition, and figured that it was likely to become a new fixture in their house soon.

Sebastian moved to a more secluded area while Leah's attention was elsewhere; he needed time to calm his heart rate before he appreciated the artwork any more.


	11. Tipsy - Harvey/Elliott

"Alright... here we go." Harvey grunted as he eased the door to Elliott's cabin open, no easy task seeing as how his arms were currently occupied keeping the man himself upright. Elliott was no help at all in that regard, draping one arm over Harvey's shoulders and giving him an encouraging pat and a giggle.

He deposited Elliott on the bed and stretched with a quiet groan; half-carrying someone Elliott's size even the distance from the pub down to the beach was exertion of a level that Harvey wasn't used to. Elliott just toed his shoes off and then sat watching him with a serene smile.

"You're such a gentleman, doctor."

"Just doing my job," Harvey replied automatically, glancing around the interior of the cabin. He had never been inside Elliott's home before; it was rather less extravagant than he had been expecting. Really the only reason he was here was that he had been chatting with Robin and Demetrius when Elliott had entered the pub, and Harvey vividly recalled the last time Elliott had indulged in a strong drink. Or rather, he remembered Elliott pitifully dragging himself to the clinic the next afternoon with a raging hangover. It was a bit of a concern that someone who obviously couldn't hold his liquor didn't seem to be aware of the fact, so he'd kept a close eye on Elliott as the evening wore on, just in case he started seeming sick.

It had ended up that Elliott probably hadn't had enough to do any real damage to himself, but his balance had still been shot, so Harvey volunteered to take him home. Apparently Willy was the one to usually do the deed but he'd had some business with Lewis and didn't want Elliott trying to make his way home in the dark while inebriated.

Harvey filled a glass of water for Elliott and rummaged through his small pantry until he came up with some over-the-counter painkillers and dry crackers, which he left out with a note on Elliott's desk. As he turned to leave, Elliott half-rose from the bed and caught him by the sleeve, mumbling something. Harvey didn't quite catch it but it sounded like a promise to repay him by writing a sonnet describing his virtues, or something equally Elliott-like.

"Go to bed, Elliott. You're drunk."

"'M not," Elliott protested, still smiling. "Just lovesick."

Once he finally got back home, Harvey wasn't sure if he wanted to bill Elliott less for his services, or more.


	12. Inner Peace - Emily/Alex

"Breathe in... and out... in... now out... now take a deep breath and hold it."

Alex obeyed the gentle voice directing him, doing his best to "feel the breath flowing through all the corners of his body" or... something to that effect, anyway.

There were soft, light touches on the sides of his face. "Don't squeeze your eyes closed so tightly. Relax. Hold your head up and straighten your spine, don't fold in on yourself." He followed the voice and the guiding touch, trying to stay mindful of his breathing at the same time.

"Good, good." He couldn't see it, as his eyes were still closed, but he could hear the smile in Emily's voice.

The peace was shattered when Haley arrived home and complained at Emily for roping Alex into her "weird hippie stuff", but Alex was feeling better by then. He and Emily looked at each other and laughed as Haley rolled her eyes at them.

Alex supposed that he didn't mind being a little weird from time to time if it could be like this.


	13. Adventure - Abigail/Maru

On the one hand, Maru is reasonably certain that her parents - her father especially - are simply being overprotective when they forbid her from venturing into the old mines. She doesn't intend to venture that deeply in, she's done her research on what sorts of monsters dwell in the area and where they would be encountered, and she just wants to look at some rocks, for Yoba's sake.

On the other, she went to all the trouble of sneaking out of the house at night, all her supplies carefully packed, only to almost immediately lose her footing on some loose gravel and take a tumble, painfully turning her ankle as she landed. So maybe her parents were onto something there.

She could deal with the pain; it wasn't like she hadn't ever banged herself up before in the course of field research or tinkering around with machinery. What she wasn't so keen on was the fact that she had surely drawn the attention of anything in the area with the yelp that she let out as she fell, and that now she could hear the quiet but clear rhythm of approaching footsteps from deeper within the mine

It was almost amusing, the way that Abigail looked as surprised as Maru was when she drew near enough for them to clearly make each other out.

"What are you doing here?" Abigail asked abruptly, seeming flustered as though she had been caught in the midst of some sort of wrongdoing.

Maru smiled ruefully. "I could ask you the same thing, you know."

Abigail huffed a little bit, but seemed to concede the point. "I was just... you know, exploring. It's not against the law."

"No," Maru agreed, though they both knew perfectly well that their respective parental figures would hit the roof if anyone knew they were here.

After a few moments of slightly uncomfortable silence, Abigail offered her hand. Maru smiled a little more easily and took it, wincing slightly as she put weight on her twisted ankle but managing to stand.

"You should probably get home and put some ice on that," Abigail said, glancing down though there was no way she could really make out Maru's ankle in the dim light. After another moment of hesitation, she added, "Here, lean on me," and pulled Maru's arm around her shoulders. Maru noticed the sword hanging from Abigail's belt as they brushed against each other, but decided against asking. There was a time and a place to ask questions, and it wasn't when one of your half-brother's few friends was supporting most of your weight as you limped back from your joint illicit escapade.

They made it to the back door of Maru's room without incident and slipped inside as quietly as possible.

"Prop your leg up, okay?" Abigail said in a whisper that still seemed overly loud. Maru supposed that was just her demeanor.

She nodded and toed her shoes off before doing so. She didn't exactly need such instruction - she wasn't a registered nurse for nothing - but there was no point in being snobbish about it.

Abigail turned to leave once Maru was situated to her satisfaction but paused in the doorway, turning back slightly. "Hey-" she began uncertainly.

Maru raised her eyebrows in a silent question. Abigail seemed to mull something over for a moment before continuing.

"If you're going to go looking around in the mines again- well, let me know and I'll go with you next time, okay?"

Maru smiled. "Sure thing," she said.

She wasn't sure if she would bother going back anytime soon, after the spectacular failure that this outing had been, but that was okay. 

She knew who to call the next time she wanted a little taste of adventure.


	14. Color and Form - Emily/Leah

You could paint wood, of course, but Leah had never been much of a painter. She preferred the natural textures and colors of her sculpting materials, whatever they happened to be for any particular piece.

That didn't mean that she wouldn't try to convey the  _idea_ of color in her sculptures. As she ever-so-carefully chiseled and scraped away at the block of wood in front of her, coaxing out the form of a body in the throes of a wild, joyful dance, she envisioned jewel tones.


	15. Nighttime - Alex/Abigail

Alex doesn't take a lot of interest in most of the other young people in Stardew Valley. Haley is pretty much his only friend from high school in the area, and well... most of the others are pretty weird, in one way or another. He's got too much going on in his own life to care about what they're doing in their free time.

Take Abigail, for example. She's always been kind of strange, he can remember that much from when they were in school together. She's grown from an awkward, sullen teenager into an odd (but undeniably attractive, even if it's not in a way Alex is usually drawn to) young woman. He's seen how she acts when she thinks that nobody else is around, wandering about in the rain and at night doing Yoba knew what. Whatever she's doing, she tries to keep it secret and he tells himself that he's happy enough to leave it at that.

But these things have a way of getting at you and not letting go.

And every once in a while, when he can't sleep and the nights are clear, cold, and starry, Alex might glance out the window and see that figure that he's grown to recognize so well heading up into the mountains or out to the cemetery. At those times, which almost feel like dreams, he can't help but feel curious.


	16. Precious - Haley/Penny

The air was sharp with cold, but Penny was cozy with her winter coat and the mug of hot cocoa in her hands, taking contented sips as she watched the other villagers milling around at the Feast of the Winter Star. She had already delivered her present - a homemade pink cake, created under Gus's careful supervision - to a starry-eyed Jas, and was now enjoying simply people-watching. It helped her to not feel so antsy about when her gift was going to arrive, and from whom.

She managed to get so caught up in Gus's story about artisan candy canes - or rather Elliott and Leah's put-upon expressions listening to the same - that she snapped back to reality with a start when she felt a tap on the shoulder. Her hot cocoa sloshed but didn't spill, and Penny took a moment to steady her hands before turning to see who it was.

Haley stood there, clutching a small, ribbon-wrapped box. She smiled at Penny's surprise, and it lacked the edge that Penny might have expected even a year or two ago. Haley had been doing a lot of growing as a person over the past few seasons, opening her heart to Pelican Town and slowly but surely making the connections she had lacked for so long with her neighbors.

"So, I'm your secret gift-giver this year," she began. "I, uh, I hope you like it." She held the gift-wrapped package out to Penny, who set her mug down before taking it carefully. It was light, and nearly fit in the palm of her hand; she turned it over curiously, hearing no rattling or any sort of noise from inside.

Haley giggled, but Penny thought that she detected a note of anticipation in it. "Go ahead, open it!"

Penny did so, carefully undoing the ribbons and paper and setting the wrappings neatly aside; she could reuse them later on, when she needed to give someone a birthday gift or something. Inside was a small, velvet jewelry box, and Penny felt her heart jump as she recognized the logo stamped on top of it. She had seen the same logo on some of the shopping bags Haley occasionally came back from a trip to Zuzu City carrying, from the sort of store she herself could never even dream of shopping at.

A glance up at Haley confirmed that she was still eagerly watching Penny's movements and reactions, hands clasped almost anxiously in front of her. Penny swallowed, unsure why she suddenly felt nervous, and opened the box. Nestled inside was a delicately-formed gold ring, set with tiny, sparkling diamonds.

Penny couldn't stop herself from gasping, and Haley's nervous smile became a full-fledged grin. "I heard diamonds were your favorite."

"No- I mean, yes, they are, I love it, but-" Penny stumbled over her own words, staggered as she tried to comprehend how much this one piece of jewelry must have  _cost_. More than she and her mother combined made in a year, probably. "I mean- is it really okay for me to have this?"

"Yeah, of course!" Haley nodded insistently. "I wanted to get something you'd really like."

"I do like it," Penny said, still feeling unsteady. "I really, really do. I love it. It's beautiful." She had never owned anything so pretty. So  _extravagant_. It almost felt like a waste to let someone give such a thing to her.

"It's probably too cold to put it on now," Haley continued, oblivious to the depth of Penny's shock. "But try it on when you get home and if it doesn't fit I can take it to the jeweler's to get resized."

"Okay," Penny said faintly. She closed the box and stowed it carefully inside her coat pocket, keeping one hand curled around it as though it might disappear.

Haley looked immensely pleased. "I've heard that in some parts of the Ferngill Republic, people propose with diamond rings instead of pendants!" She laughed a little self-consciously. "I mean, that's not what this is for, obviously, but fun fact."

"That's interesting," Penny agreed, trying to act like she wasn't going to think of that implication whenever she looked at - or Yoba forbid,  _wore_ \- the beautiful ring from now on.

It was going to be an interesting new year.


	17. When One Door Closes - Sebastian/Alex

So Alex got yelled at by Maru.

It was an innocent mistake. Well, innocent probably wasn't the right word. Definitely a mistake, and he hadn't  _really_ meant anything malicious, but you probably couldn't call it innocent.

So Maru was cute, right? In a nerdy sort of way. Alex had figured she'd be easy to impress, not too hard to talk to as long as he didn't pretend to know, uh... well, anything. Had to showcase his good points.

So, like, maybe he'd kind of sort of gotten a little bit mean about Sebastian while trying to build himself up as he talked to Maru. He hadn't meant anything really bad by it - hell, he had said worse things to his friends' faces back in the high school locker room and everyone had laughed it off. He knew Sebastian and Maru weren't close, had figured she wouldn't take offense.

Long story short, she had taken offense. Loud offense. Loud enough that Harvey had come out of the back of the clinic to see what was going on, and the farmer had poked her head curiously out as well, bandaged as she was from some mishap in the mines. From the two of them, it wasn't long before everyone in town knew at least one side of the story. Alex didn't even want to think about what had gotten exaggerated and blown out of proportion.

But whatever, he'd sunk his chances with the cute nerd girl, but it wasn't like there weren't plenty of other girls around. There was Haley, and... uh... Leah was cute. And...

So there weren't that many interesting girls his age in Pelican Town, and to be frank, the alternative kind of scared him to think about so Alex did what he did best and didn't think about it.

He wouldn't have thought about what got him into this mess in the first place at all if he could help it, but as he was washing the dishes after dinner the next evening, his grandmother gave him The Look. That half-stern, half-disappointed look that made him want to shrivel up and die, because Alex hated nothing more than letting his grandmother down. She laid her hand on his arm and gave him The Look, and said, "I know you didn't mean anything by it dear, but you ought to go apologize to that poor boy."

She had gone on after that, something about how they could probably be great friends if Alex would just try, but the first sentence was the most important and the part he was dreading. To apologize to Sebastian, Alex would have to go to his house. Where he lived. The alternative was probably waiting a whole season until the weather changed enough for Sebastian to actually venture outside, and Alex couldn't take a whole entire season of disappointed grandma looks.

So that was how he found himself knocking on Sebastian's bedroom door the next afternoon, when he knew that Sebastian, Sam, and Abigail would be huddled around a table playing some kind of game about magic and skeletons or something. He was pretty sure magic and skeletons were what Sebastian was into, anyway.

...Maybe he should have brought something like that as an apology gift to show he was sincere?

No, that was dumb. Where would he even get a skeleton?

Fortunately, the door opened a fraction so that Alex wasn't left alone with his thoughts. Unfortunately, it didn't open any more than that, forcing him to peer at the visible sliver of Sebastian's face. It was impossible to make out his expression.

"Um," Alex began. "Hi?"

"...Hi."

"So, uh," Alex fumbled for words. "So, like, I dunno what you've heard or if you've heard anything actually, but, uh, I just wanted you to know that I said some mean stuff the other day but like, I  _really_ didn't mean it. Really. I'm sorry. I was being a jerk and I got carried away."

Sebastian's one visible eye blinked at him slowly, offering no response.

"And, um! I think skeletons are... pretty cool?" Alex offered. Why was this so nerve-wracking? Why couldn't Sebastian just accept his apology and let them be done with it?

"...Okay?" Alex was pretty sure that he heard distinctly Abigail-like snickering from back in Sebastian's room.

Alex didn't know what else to say. Silence stretched between them uncomfortably.

"Is that all?" Sebastian asked finally.

Alex didn't think that counted as an acceptance of an apology. To be perfectly honest, he probably wouldn't have accepted his apology either. He could probably back out now and say that he tried, but he thought again of enduring an entire season of disappointed grandmother, and sighed.

"Um... I was kind of wondering, if I could... you know... join your game...?" That was friendly, right? That would prove he was sincere. He was showing an interest in Sebastian as a person or something. They could get to know each other and be... bros. Yeah.

Sebastian shut the door in his face.

"Oh," Alex said. He stood there a moment, surprised at how dejected he felt. He could hear shuffling and low voices behind the door, no doubt going over all the myriad ways that he was a terrible jerk. Yeah, fair enough.

He was about to turn and trudge back up the stairs when the door opened again, wide enough this time for Alex to look into the room. Abigail and Sam were seated at a table with a pile of books, papers, dice, and little figurines. They both looked at Alex skeptically. Sebastian's expression was much the same, frowning at Alex with a searching gaze for a moment before he spoke.

"...We'll let you in on a trial session," he finally said. "Before we decide if you can join the party."

Alex wasn't sure what that meant - they partied down here? - but the rush of relief was as surprising as his momentary dejection before. "Okay!" He grinned.

Sebastian made a face that seemed like he was considering smiling back but didn't quite get there. He shuffled back from the door so Alex could enter. "So... come in and we'll put together a character sheet for you."

"Sure, sure!" Alex had no idea what he had just gotten himself into, but he eagerly stepped through the door.


	18. Rejuvenation - Harvey/Shane

Overcoming your demons is never easy. Harvey knows that. Anyone who would suggest otherwise was lying or lacking in experience.

He had been lonely when he first came to this town. Lost, defeated, feeling certain that nobody here would ever understand him, feeling like just being here was an admission of giving up. He had moved to a dying little town and he'd fade away with it, he had thought.

It had taken a long time for Harvey to look past the surface and see the life slowly seeping back into Pelican Town, but when he finally did look, he was shocked he hadn't seen it before.

The new farm was bursting with life of course, fruits, vegetables, flowers, animals, and of course the farmer who cultivated them all. Maru couldn't stop herself from gushing to Harvey one day that Sebastian had actually come upstairs and sat down for a meal with the family for the first time in recent memory. Elliott published a book, and Gunther proudly displayed its awards alongside the refurbished museum displays. Leah's art was all around town, and Harvey heard rumors about some troublesome ex finally leaving her alone.

Shane was taking his first shaky steps towards overcoming alcoholism.

He didn't quit cold turkey; he knew from experience more than Harvey's advice that it wouldn't work out. But he eased off and didn't spend so many hours at the bar, he worked with more diligence and care, and he dutifully reported back to Harvey whenever his therapist said he was making progress, though Harvey had told him it wasn't necessary to do so.

And for the first time since moving to Pelican Town, Harvey was hopeful.

The future was uncertain, of course. It always was. Disaster could strike at any time. But slowly and surely, the town was coming back to life and it was sweeping Harvey along with it.

Sooner or later, he was going to have to face his own demons. And you know, he was even starting to feel like he might be able to handle it.

It wasn't going to be easy. It never was. But Shane caught his eye from the corner of the bar and lifted his cup in recognition, and he even smiled a bit, and it got Harvey's blood pumping in a way that he hadn't felt in a very, very long time.

He thought that maybe, they were all going to be alright.


	19. Something New - Abigail/Leah

New people drift into Pelican Town from time to time. Abigail doesn't get it, but they provide some brief interest and sometimes entertainment. For most of them, that's it.

Then Leah arrives.

Abigail doesn't really care at first. She's heard people go on and on about how Stardew Valley is great to get the creative juices flowing or whatever, but she's pretty sure that only works for the city people who are trying to "get away from it all" or whatever. She's lived here her whole life, and it's the same old, same old.

But she keeps bumping into Leah out in the forest, and it's the first time she has seen  _anyone_ out there besides her distant glimpses of the wizard. Abigail sees the tools Leah carries, her weapons of creation, and just like that, she's curious. She somehow manages to get herself invited inside, and Leah's art is nothing like anything Abigail has ever seen, in Pelican Town or elsewhere.

And all of a sudden, she's hoping that Leah won't be another city person who drifts away to find inspiration elsewhere after the valley is no longer an escape.

For maybe the first time in her life, Abigail wants to help build something new right here.


	20. Hold My Hand - Sam/Sebastian

Band practice had pretty much ground to a halt even before Abigail got called home, thanks to Sam's raging case of terminal whiny. Writer's block in regards to song lyrics and a snapped guitar string had also contributed, but Sebastian was pretty comfortable laying most of the blame with Sam.

Sebastian himself was valiantly trying to continue playing around on his keyboard, hoping inspiration for either lyrics or a melody would strike, but Sam had given up on playing altogether and instead draped himself across his bed while dramatically complaining.

"Sebastiannnn," Sam whined, "my hands hurt."

"Sorry?" Sebastian didn't lift his eyes from the keyboard as he fiddled with the synth levels, but Sam's insistent movement finally drew his attention.

Sprawled upside down on his bed, Sam lifted his arms towards Sebastian with a pitiful expression. Now that Sebastian looked, Sam's fingers did look red and a bit raw, telltale signs of solo practice running too long the night before.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" He asked.

"I dunno." Sam wiggled his fingers.  "Kiss it better?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the way his face heated. "Yeah, right. Try again."

"Come on, just look at it."

Sebastian sighed and walked from his keyboard to the bed, taking Sam's hand for a closer look, though he didn't think that it would tell him anything he didn't already know. He didn't have to look hard at all before Sam's ulterior motive revealed itself, however. As soon as Sebastian took his hand, Sam laced their fingers together and squeezed, grinning at Sebastian's reddened face.

"Oh you fucking nerd." Sebastian whipped his hand away and shoved his hands into his pockets, turning away with a huff.

Sam just laughed. If "nerd" was the worst Sebastian could come up with, there was no way that he was actually mad.


	21. Perspective - Alex/Leah

Leah didn't like to think of herself as judgmental. She was an artist! She saw the world in a different way than most people, and that meant being open-minded.

Maybe it was that open-mindedness that came back to bite her sometimes, though. Kel had certainly turned out not to be all that Leah had thought he could be. Beneath the layers of pushiness, Type-A ambition, and a coddling appreciation for Leah's work that bordered on insulting and pandering, there was... more of the same.

So maybe she'd backed off a bit in trying to get to know people after she first moved to Pelican Town. She didn't want to say that she had written any of them off, but aside from Elliott, she hadn't made a lot of effort to befriend anyone yet.

Even if she'd bothered to compile some sort of friendship hit list though, Alex wouldn't have started out high on it.

He was, on the surface, a type that she knew well. Ambition. Confidence. Self-assurance in his own worldview. Nothing wrong with any of that on its own, and really he didn't seem like such a bad guy, but there was nothing there that immediately grabbed Leah's attention.

The thing about art though, is that sometimes you just have to shift things around a little bit to make something that really grabs the audience.

Change the lighting or angle of the scene, and you've got something that looks completely different even if assembled from the same materials and by the same design. Leah knew that well; she often liked to play with tricks of perspective in her more abstract sculptures.

And one day, she just happened to start really looking, and she began to notice Alex's finer details.

The solitary walks into the mountains. The way he gently took Evelyn by the hand to steady her when the cobbled streets were slick with rain. The fact that Alex was the only person Leah had ever seen successfully get George to crack a smile for even a moment. The breaks in that unshakable confidence, so momentary that you had to question whether they had happened at all.

Maybe things with Kel had shaken her more than she thought. She had almost forgotten that most people _did_ have depth.

One time Alex caught her looking. He flashed her a grin and a wink, and Leah was startled to feel a flutter of butterflies in her stomach in response.

Maybe it was time she started seeing him in a different light.


	22. Confidant - Abigail/Harvey

For all the time he's been in Pelican Town, Harvey still hasn't gotten to know his neighbors that well. Most often, he chats with Maru on their respective breaks, and he has passing conversations with Alex when paying a home visit to check up on George and Evelyn. And of course there's the new farmer, who can't seem to stop getting lost in the mines.

He's lived next door to Pierre's family for years now, but it's not until Abigail shows up at the clinic, beating down his door in the middle of the night while cradling a scraped and bloodied arm, that Harvey starts to wonder just what  _she_ might be getting up to when nobody is paying attention.

She isn't truthful with him that first time, making up some story about going for a late-night walk around town and tripping near the river. Harvey can tell that it's a fib, but he doesn't press the issue.

Not until it happens again, at least.

For all of Abigail's love of the fantastic, she's a pretty bad liar. He tells her so, and she makes a face at him. She only relents after he assures her that whatever is exchanged between the two of them will stay within the clinic walls and not get back to her parents. Abigail's technically an adult, after all, and Harvey takes his duty to patient confidentiality very seriously.

He hadn't anticipated just what sort of nightlife Abigail had been living, but oddly enough, he thinks he can understand why she does what she does. He isn't surprised when these nighttime visits become a regular thing, nor when their conversations develop beyond what sort of crevice Abigail had fallen down this time and venture into wants and needs, hopes and dreams, and disappointments with any and all of them.

Harvey couldn't achieve his original dream. Abigail has so many dreams, but she still doesn't know what she wants. (Only that's not exactly true either, because there's one thing she's started to want and it just might be within reach.)

She shows up late in the evening, uninjured, clutching a bottle of wine fresh from the farm up the road.

"I just wanted to talk," she says, a nervous edge to her grin and her words.

And Harvey isn't quite sure what to say to that other than, "Me too." And they do talk, well into the nighttime, sipping the wine and laughing, clumsily and eagerly just being close to each other.


	23. Lost Time - Maru & Sebastian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight spoilers for Maru's ten-heart event, re-purposed into a platonic sibling thing.

It could have been funny, that all it took was Sebastian getting married and moving out for it to sink in that he and Maru had never really hated each other. Could have been, if he hadn't realized immediately after the first shock just how much both of them had missed out on over the years.

The past year had been like a photo album of their lives all compressed into a short span of time, snapshots of fighting, making up, finally being honest with themselves and with each other.

And it hurt. It hurt to know that this was what they could have had all along, and there were a lot of days when it was hard for Sebastian to not completely blame himself for that.

But as much hurt as there was, there were so many better things too.

Conversations, for one thing. Neither of them had been very good at those outside of a few niche topics. It was kind of nice, in a way, to not be the only person stumbling over your words. It was nice to learn new things and even better to teach them. It was nice to laugh together, awkward and halting as that laughter started out. Commiserating and just- damn it, just beginning to  _understand_ each other for once, after all these years.

Working on projects together was pretty good too. Sebastian wasn't used to working on things side by side with someone else, but Maru's engineering skill combined with his coding produced things neither of them could have ever dreamed of making on their own.

Sebastian damn near had a heart attack when that robot of Maru's just up and decided to come to life one day, and then he gave her an awkward, one-armed hug while she sniffled and smiled with pride all at the same time as MarILDA took off into the sky.

Life sure was weird sometimes. Experiencing it with someone else helped.


	24. Bad Day - Abigail/Sebastian

Abigail falls asleep to unanswered texts and IMs, and wakes up to find them still sitting on read. She knows the drill by now, so she gets up, showers, dresses herself, and gathers an armful of snacks, shoving some into her mouth as she trudges out of her house and up the mountain path.

She has carefully arranged herself this morning. Hair just messy enough, clothes just sloppy enough. Most people would glance at her and deem today's look "minimal effort" without realizing that it was completely intentional.

It didn't do to show up on someone's doorstep when they were suffering and look like you totally had your life together. That only served to widen the gulf between you and them.

Abigail greets Robin at her shop front and continues on into the house without asking. Her presence here has long been routine. It would be stranger these days for a week to go by when she didn't show up. She doesn't bother to knock at the basement door, but she makes sure not to stomp her way down the stairs.

Sebastian, as expected, is still in bed, cocooned in his blankets with his face to the wall. Abigail doesn't verbally greet him; she can't tell from this angle if he's even awake.

Instead, she deposits her food offerings on the table for later, toes out of her shoes, and crawls beneath the covers to curl up against Sebastian's back. After a while, he confirms that he's conscious and aware of her presence by shifting to rest his hand on the arm she drapes over his chest.

Some days are no good, but Abigail tries not to waste them.


	25. Beauty - Shane/Haley

Shane probably didn't seem like the kind of guy who appreciated any of the beauty in the world. Scratch that - he knew he didn't seem the type. And for the most part, he wasn't. For the most part, it was easy to move through the world in a fog, never stopping to really look around at what was around him for fear that he'd see the imperfections rather than the good.

It was easy to write people off that way. Easy to keep himself from wanting to let them in. Easy to tell himself that everything was a façade or a pretty lie.

But Yoba help him- even with all of that, even though it was easier to coast through without ever reaching out, sometimes he just couldn't stop himself from looking.

And when he looked, he saw Haley, and she was sunshine and cotton candy, spring flowers and summer heat, gemstones and sparkling ocean water. And it was easy, so, so easy, to tell himself that she was nothing more than a pretty picture.

But, Yoba help him. Even Shane knew that nobody could be that kind of beautiful if there was nothing at all under the surface. And once he started looking, he couldn't stop himself from wanting to  _know_ someone for once.


	26. Hypochondriac - Harvey/Sam

Maru looked up when the clinic's front door jingled open, usual welcoming expression in place, before it abruptly dropped when she saw who the visitor was.

"Get out of here, you hypochondriac," she said without preamble, before Sam could say anything.

And like, wow. Rude. Sam was shocked, hurt, offended, a little bit put off by just how much Maru looked like Sebastian when scowling- he had a lot of emotions here, okay. "Come on," he whined, "you're gonna kick me out as soon as I show up? What if I'm really sick?"

Maru didn't budge. "You look fine to me."

Sam sniffled a little bit for effect, which for some reason continued to not impress her.

"Aren't you going to at least check to see if I have a fever?" He ventured after another minute or two of Maru staring him down.

Maru sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come here, then," she said, holding out her hand. Sam obeyed, and Maru laid the back of her hand against his forehead for about half a second before straightening up and declaring, "You don't have a fever."

"I could have a little bit of a fever."

Maru lifted her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sam. You've been in here almost every day for the past two weeks. If I actually  _charged_ you for wasting both my and the doctor's time, your family would be destitute by now. You're not sick."

Sam opened his mouth to argue, feeling a hot trickle of embarrassment when she pointed out just how much money he could have potentially been wasting, but Maru cut him off.

"You want my professional opinion? Okay: buy a nice bottle of wine, go over to Harvey's place one evening when he's  _not at work_ , and tell him how you feel. That'll clear your symptoms right up."

"Buh-" Sam sputtered. "Wh- I mean, what are you implying, exactly-"

Maru just gave him another deadpan look. Sam really didn't understand how Sebastian could wonder if they were actually related. "You want me to write that down on a prescription slip for you, just to make it official?"

A blush immediately bloomed across Sam's face. "No," he said weakly. He'd never hear the end of it if someone got hold of something like  _that_. 

"Good. Leave."

"Okay," Sam mumbled, defeated by Maru's ice-cold logic and his own burning embarrassment. "But, like, in the event that I actually am ever sick, your hospitality could use some work-"

" _Out._ "

Sam went out.

At least with all the money he'd saved thanks to Maru not bothering to charge him for his frivolous clinic visits, he could maybe afford a good bottle of wine.


	27. Signal - Sebastian/Harvey

Sebastian went to the Pelican Town clinic as rarely as he could manage. For one thing, he and Maru weren't exactly jumping at the opportunity to spend more time in each other's company. For another, doctors were always the sort of people who looked at you with that certain measure of aggravating concern and asked if everything was okay, which definitely ranked among Sebastian's top five least favorite questions. It was so vague, it felt like prying into his life, and nobody ever really wanted the honest answer, anyway.

All of that said, here he was. At the clinic. He'd trudged up the stairs from his room halfway through the day one time too many, the circles under his eyes just a shade too dark this time, and his mom had gotten into one of her Mom Moods and decided that he needed a checkup to see if anything could be done for his sleep schedule. Sebastian had put up his stock resistance before giving up and letting himself be dragged along when she went to town the next day.

At least Maru was off today.

Things went... okay, as far as visits to the doctor went. Harvey was all business for the most part, inquiring about Sebastian's habits. He tutted a little bit over the smoking, but he didn't ask if Sebastian had gotten into anything more exotic than cigarettes and the occasional beer at the pub on Friday nights. For one moment, Sebastian thought that the dreaded question was about to come up, but Harvey just paused and looked him over once more, and then he turned away with an expression that Sebastian couldn't decipher.

"Generally, I'd advise restricting your use of technology during the night, at least when it comes to looking at things with screens. Helps the body figure out that it's time to sleep, you know. However..." Harvey gave a little shrug, looking somewhat abashed. "I personally find that leaving the radio on can be a help when I have difficulty relaxing. Right now, there's not anything that I think I'm qualified to prescribe you other than a bit of friendly advice. Do with it what you will."

And Sebastian shrugged and mumbled something and mostly forgot about it until that night, when he once again found himself laying wide awake at ass o'clock in the morning. He ran the gamut of tossing and turning, checking his phone only to find that barely a few minutes had passed since he last looked at it, and having a quick smoke to calm himself down when he started getting too frustrated with everything. Finally, he remembered what Harvey had suggested.

Hell, it at least couldn't make things any  _worse_.

Sebastian dug his old radio out of his closet and plugged it in next to his bed, fiddling with the antenna until a clear signal came through. He laid back down beneath the covers with one arm hanging over the side of the bed so that he could lazily spin the radio's dial until he picked up a song that he liked.

It... wasn't bad. He wasn't used to having any noise down here besides whatever sounds he made moving around, especially at this hour. Even with the radio turned down low, things somehow felt just the slightest bit less suffocating. At some point, maybe he ought to thank Harvey for the advice.

He didn't doze off until it was well and truly morning, but when he finally did sleep, Sebastian slept well.


	28. Best Friends Forever - Alex/Haley

Alex and Haley had been close since they were kids. It made sense, in a lot of ways. The pretty, popular fashionista and the confident jock. They could have been the kids on a poster for some high school chick flick, had they lived anywhere else.

Alex, at least, knew that it went deeper than that. People might have called Haley shallow, airheaded, whatever -- some of it was more true than he'd ever admit out loud, but he didn't care. Haley, for all her faults, had always been somebody who believed in him. He had told her when they were two knobby-kneed kids sitting on the beach as he tossed the football that was too big for his hands up in the air and fumbled to catch it that someday he'd go pro. From that moment, she had never doubted him. Even when things got bad with his dad and then with his mom, when it looked for a time like he was going nowhere after high school, Haley had cheered on his dream. That meant more than any momentary ditziness or catty comment from her could undo.

Haley was just as secure in their relationship -- friendship, dating, whatever it was. Sometimes, she thought that Alex was the only thing keeping her from abandoning Pelican Town completely, packing up and running off to the city with her parents' allowance to start a new life. People could say that Alex was dumb, that he was a jerk, but Haley just rolled her eyes at them. They didn't know him. They didn't see how hard he worked, how much he loved his grandparents, all the things he had been through. Haley knew, though. She'd always known that Alex was destined for great things, and she wanted to be right there with him when they came. She just hoped he felt the same way about her. Someday soon, she'd work up the courage to ask him face-to-face.

In the end, what other people thought might have mattered a little bit, but it didn't change anything. If nothing else, they'd always have each other.


	29. Haters - Haley/Abigail

Haley didn't care whether people like her or not. Well- it would be more accurate to say that she already knew who liked her, and she valued those people. Most of the time, she liked them too. Everyone else didn't matter so much, and so she didn't care if they liked her. A lot of the time, she didn't even bother figuring out how someone felt about her if she wasn't already interested in them as a friend or something else.

Most of the time, it was easy. People fit into categories a lot more neatly than they liked to claim. Maybe she shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but it didn't take her long to figure others out. That was the kind of social game Haley had been playing since childhood. People could call her dumb, call her shallow, whatever. She could read them better than they could ever hope to read her. Weirdos, haters, nerds- Haley knew right off the bat they probably didn't like her for things just as shallow as what they accused her of. That was why she didn't bother with them.

On the surface, Abigail was easy to figure out. She was definitely a weirdo, certainly a hater, absolutely a nerd. She and Haley had known each other pretty much all their lives, growing up in the same small town and going to the same school, and Abigail had always been like that. She thought she was so cool and smart, too. Even if Haley had been the least bit interested, she was certain that Abigail wouldn't have given her the time of day.

Abigail's probable opinion of her wasn't hard to work out and never had been. What Haley had never been able to figure out for herself was why not being able to have Abigail hurt more than anybody else.


	30. Education - Leah/Maru

"I don't understand a lot of the stuff that you talk about," Leah confessed once, after they had known each other for a while. "But I don't mind listening. I can tell it's exciting for you."

Maru just laughed. "I feel the same way about a lot of art stuff. I'm happy to listen too, but I probably won't get it."

Leah grinned back and offered her hand. "I can show you some basics, if you want. Or you can just hang out while I work - that's pretty much what I do with your stuff, I guess."

Maru took the hand that was offered, still smiling. "You know I'm always up for learning something new. Or just watching."

Either way, it always felt like a bright and exciting discovery.


	31. Heart to Heart - Penny/Maru

Whenever the weather was nice enough in the spring, Penny met Maru at the old bench in the center of town.

It was something that Penny always looked forward to. It helped that she had something to look forward to. Something to keep her going. Even in the depths of winter, when everything was cold and dark, Penny could close her eyes and envision spring flowers, the familiar worn wood against her back, and Maru's hand resting on hers.

Sometimes they talked, about feelings and frustrations, about hopes and dreams. Sometimes they didn't say anything. Every now and then, they'd each bring a book and just read, side by side. Sometimes Penny didn't feel like speaking at all but she needed something to fill the silence, to drown out all of the things that ached within her and demanded release. Maru had gotten good at picking up on these times, and she would ramble about this and that, her latest project, some funny thing her dad did. No matter what, Maru's hand would always find its way over to Penny's and press down, grounding her.

It didn't make everything okay, but it made things better.


	32. Break Time - Sam/Shane

Some days, the monotony of stocking shelves just got to be too much, and Shane was a hair away from locking himself in the break room and screaming until someone called the cops. Today was one of those days.

He needed a drink. He needed a fucking better job, but there was nothing. Pelican Town was a wasteland, and Shane was wasting away with it. There was nothing good here, nobody good here, nobody who lived here would ever amount to anything with JojaCorp squeezing the life out of everything-

Shane's spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the break room door swinging open and an anthropomorphized ray of sunshine clutching a can of Joja-Cola strolling in.

Sam paused with the can to his lips, looking somewhat startled to find Shane in there. They rarely spoke, despite being coworkers and almost-neighbors. Morris was known to hand out infractions to employees who socialized on the clock.

"Hey," Sam said, after a moment's pause.

Shane just grunted in response. Some of the tension had deflated from him thanks to the interruption, however, and he felt his shoulders slump a bit instead of hunching.

Several minutes passed in awkward silence, broken only by the noise of Sam's slurping his drink. It was irritating, but not enough for Shane to say anything about it. His fifteen minutes were up, anyway.

As Shane turned to leave, the feeling of Sam's hand settling on his back, right between his shoulder blades, made him jump.

"Hey, uh," Sam said, "keep on keepin' on, okay man?"

"...Sure," Shane mumbled, and hurried out. Nobody else, coworker or customer, glanced up at him as he resumed his place between the shelves.

The warmth of Sam's handprint on his back lingered.


	33. Bedtime Stories - Haley & Emily

When they were little kids, Emily would tell Haley stories every night.

They shared a room for years, and even after they got old enough that their parents decided they should have their own spaces, Haley would slide out of bed and creep over to Emily's room almost nightly. She loved her big sister's stories; she was jealous of Emily's imagination, of the wonder that she saw in the world.

People grow and change. Haley eventually outgrew Emily's imagination, even if Emily herself never did. At some point, she realized that her older sister was... weird.

That was what people called her. Weird. Haley didn't want to be weird, so she stopped listening, stopped trying to see what Emily saw. Emily was content to be the strange one, and Haley was content to let her.

It's just that sometimes, she remembers that she never found out how the last story ended, and she desperately wants to go back and hear it all again.

By the time she thinks to ask, Emily has forgotten the story and doesn't know what Haley is talking about. She smiles anyway and compliments Haley on her imagination, on how bright and creative she is to have come up with something like that fictional world.

Haley doesn't know what to say, so she just rolls her eyes and flips her hair over her shoulder, telling Emily to forget it and pretending that it doesn't mean anything. She goes to her room and curls up in bed to read a magazine and tries to make herself forget all of that childhood silliness too.


	34. Game Day - Alex/Shane

Shane could have complained about Marnie inviting what seemed like everyone in town over for the Gridbowl viewing party. He could have complained about the amount of people crowding into the house, the chatter rising over the sound of game on TV. He  _especially_ could have complained about Marnie forcing him into sobriety for the night; he wasn't alone in the alcohol ban of course, all the guests had to adhere to it too, but Shane found it especially irksome.

He wasn't complaining, though. Not even after Abigail and the farmer had snuck off to Yoba knew where to do who knew what to each other. Not even after most of the guests wandered off without cleaning up behind themselves, leaving their food trash all over the house, and the rest dozed off around the house. Not even with how irritable and too-alert he was starting to feel despite the late hour, thanks to the lack of an available drink.

Shane could have complained, but he couldn't bring himself to do so when all his focus was on the last few minutes of the televised gridball game, not with the way that he and Alex had ended up squished together on one side of the couch to make room for some sleeping neighbor. Not when the world was just the two of them and the last goal. Not with the way that Alex's hand clamped onto his arm as they both cheered, not caring who they disturbed.

In that moment, rowdy and vibrant, feeding off each other's energy, there was something bright and beautiful that Shane couldn't complain about at all.


	35. Complimentary - Abigail/Emily

Emily floats through life for the most part, pleasantly surprised when things work out and undeterred when they don't. That isn't to say that she doesn't seek out the good where she thinks it's likely to be found; she just lets intuition guide her a good portion of the way there.

She'll drift around, keeping her eyes (the two in her face plus her third eye, of course) open for that bright and shining moment, the moment when two things click together like puzzle pieces. Whether or not there is a bigger picture that the pieces fit into isn't an issue, as long as they fit together.

So Abigail is a musician, and Emily dances. Emily loves jewels and gems, and Abigail does too, though for slightly different reasons. They're both seeking out a kind of magic in the world, and it's not certain yet whether either one has found it, but it's only a matter of time. Abigail's not as stealthy as she likes to think, either with her escapades in the mines or the gifts left at Emily's work station in the pub, and Emily's not as oblivious as she appears, even with her head in the clouds.

She can be patient. There's no rush. Two stray puzzle pieces lost under the universe's couch is what they are, and all that matters is that they'll fit right together eventually.


End file.
